UN refugee agency says one mn persons to be resettled in 2017

United tions, June 14: The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said around 1.19 million persons will need resettlement in 2017. “With a multitude of conflicts and crises causing record displacement around the world, resettlement has become an increasingly vital part of UNHCR’s efforts to find solutions and advocate for fairer responsibility-sharing for refugees,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here. “Despite increased resettlement quotas from some countries, the number of people in need of resettlement far surpasses the opportunities for placement in a third country,” Xinhua news agency quoted Dujarric as saying. In 2017, Syrians are projected to account for 40 percent of needs, followed by Sudan, Afghanistan and Congo, he added. UNHCR also reported that 2015 was a record year for submissions which reached 134,044, up 29 percent from the previous year. In 2015, the US accepted 62 percent of all submissions, followed by Cada, Australia, Norway and Britain. According to the Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017, the agency resettled more than one million refugees in more than 30 resettlement countries in the past decade. The number of people in need of resettlement in 2017 will likely represent an increase of 72 percent on the projected needs of 691,000 in 2014, before the large-scale resettlement of Syrians began. (IANS)